Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Not Change, Growth

In
the—now—old movie Wayne’s World, Garth proceeds to destroy a robotic hand with
a hammer, proclaiming “We fear change.” Change is something that many people
fear. Making things different, stepping out of the comfort zone, and interrupting
routine is disruptive to life.

Growth is a
form of change, and it’s very disruptive. Yet it’s also necessary. In all
things people need to grow, but no one ever said growth is easy.

I’ve known
some teachers who refused to grow. I took many classes from professors who
stood behind a podium clicking through a presentation that was nearly 10 years
old or reading aloud straiht from the textbook. They had no interest in
disrupting their lives in order to try new things, to learn new techniques.

Some
writers, too, have difficulty accepting change. Learning how to write query
letters, taming the unruly adjectives and adverbs, or receiving criticism
gracefully are all challenges of the writing life.

There’s
quite a bit of academic research going into the idea of a growth mindset versus
a static mindset. Of course knowing one mindset from the other is only part of
it. Awareness is thought to be the best way to transition from static to
growth, but there are no guarantees to getting someone to accept growth.